
The Maitland Brown Memorial, also known as Explorers' Monument, is a monument located in
Esplanade Park
Esplanade Park is a park located at the Esplanade area within the Downtown Core district of Singapore.
History
Built in 1943 when Singapore was ruled by Japan, the Esplanade Park is one of the oldest parks in Singapore. The park was redeveloped ...
in
Fremantle
Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...
,
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
.
Unveiled on 8 February 1913,
it is approximately high, and consists of a head and shoulders statue of
Maitland Brown
Maitland Brown (17 July 18438 July 1905) was an explorer, politician and pastoralist in colonial Western Australia. He is known as the leader of the La Grange expedition and massacre, which searched for and recovered the bodies of three coloni ...
sitting on granite pedestals on a granite base inset with five plaques, one depicting three explorers,
Frederick Panter,
James Harding and
William Goldwyer.
Brown died on 8 July 1905, years prior to the unveiling of the monument, and Panter, Harding and Goldwyer years prior on 13 November 1864. The monument was commissioned by
George Julius Brockman
George Julius Brockman (2 January 1850 – 29 August 1912) was a prominent explorer and pastoralist in the Gascoyne and Kimberley regions of Western Australia.
Born in 1850 at Guildford, George was the seventh son of Robert Brockman and brother ...
who is depicted by one of the five plaques, and the statue of Brown was sculpted by
Pietro Porcelli
Pietro Giacomo Porcelli (30 January 1872 – 28 June 1943) was an Italian-born sculptor responsible for many statues in Western Australia, including the Explorers' Monument, and those of C. Y. O'Connor and Alexander Forrest.
Biography
Bo ...
.
Because the monument as originally erected is biased, such as by celebrating the colonists "as intrepid pioneers" in contrast to the Aboriginal people that "are condemned as treacherous natives",
an additional plaque was added on 9 April 1994 but leaving the original offensive and biased aspects in place.
History
Panter, Harding and Goldwyer were killed by
Aboriginal people while exploring in the
Kimberley region of Western Australia
The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, a ...
. When the men failed to return, Brown was commissioned to lead the
La Grange expedition,
which searched for the whereabouts of the missing men. Brown's party found the men speared to death, two of them evidently in their sleep. Shortly afterwards, between six and twenty Aboriginal persons were killed highly controversially even at the time by Brown's party and reported by Brown as a battle brought on by an Aboriginal ambush, but which has often since been characterised as a punitive massacre of Aboriginal people by white settlers.
Indeed, the monument itself has plainly called the group of people that conducted the expedition and that it memorialises the "punitive party" for the past years.
One of the original plaques on the pedestal reads as follows:
Additional plaque
It has long been held that the monument is a racist work that presented and continues to present a biased interpretation of the events at La Grange because, for example, it celebrates the colonists "as intrepid pioneers" in contrast to the Aboriginal people that "are condemned as treacherous natives".
In 1994, an attempt was made to redress this by placing an additional plaque on the monument.
The new plaque commemorates all Aboriginal people who died during the invasion of their country, and reads as follows:
See also
*
Flying Foam massacre
*
Forrest River massacre
The Forrest River massacre, or Oombulgurri massacre of June 1926, was a massacre of Indigenous Australian people by a group of law enforcement personnel and civilians in the wake of the killing of a pastoralist in the Kimberley region of Wester ...
*
La Grange Bay, Western Australia
*
Pinjarra massacre
References
General references
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Further reading
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External links
*{{Commons-inline, Explorers' Monument, Fremantle, Explorers' Monument
Exploration of Western Australia
Monuments and memorials in Western Australia
Buildings and structures in Fremantle
History of Indigenous Australians
1913 sculptures
Anti-indigenous racism in Australia
1913 establishments in Australia
Race-related controversies in sculpture